Squier '51: Initial Impressions

[marnold***]

Well, the FedEx woman showed up at my door about three hours ago with my blonde '51. I just wanted to give my initial impressions. Some of this will change once I've completed the setup, which it was in desperate need of. There is way too much relief on the neck, but I'm adjusting that. The intonation was right on on three strings and about 15 cents off on three others. The nut is a bit high on the A and D strings. The other four are spot on. The action is higher than I like, but once I've got the truss rod adjusted, I can address that. BTW, I'm making use of Metal Method's "Setup and Repair" DVD. Very helpful.

The good:
1) I got a black pickguard. Huzzah! I really didn't want the white one with the blonde color.
2) The neck has a satin, almost bare wood feel to it. I like that much better than the heavy gloss finish--especially in the summer.
3) The tonal variety. With the bridge humbucker split, the '51 can do a nice Tele imitation. There's not as much "twang" from the bridge pickup. It's more Strat-like in that regard. Without the coil tapped, you get a nice humbucker sound. Not as full as a Gibson or as high-gain as the Atomic II in my Fender, but nice nonetheless. The difference in the middle position with or without the coil split is subtle. The neck alone has a very Strat neck sound to it without getting all muddy. There's a lot to play with.

The bad:
1) The setup, but I knew that ahead of time. My Fender needed it too. At least now I know enough to do it myself.
2) There's a lot of little things that show you that this is a cheap guitar. The holes don't line up on the pickguard perfectly, so some of the screws are in at a slight angle. You can see a dark spot behind the bridge where the grain of the wood shows through the blonde finish. In an effort to sand the edges of the frets, they sanded a bit of the fretboard too. There's also this odd greenish mark on the 21st fret and at the end of the fretboard. It looks like it could be buffed out.

I haven't played it enough to get an idea of how well it stays in tune, but it seems to be doing pretty well. I guess basically I'd say that it's a heck of a deal for $99. With just a smidge better quality control they could slap the Fender name on it and charge as much as they would for a MIM. I've a feeling that that might be exactly what they have planned.

Further updates as situations warrant.

[marnold***]

One thing I didn't realize until now is how much of a tone suck my OD pedal is when it's off. I took that out altogether and the tonal variety is even better. It's staying in tune pretty well. Once I get the action lowered somewhat, I should be golden.

[marnold***]

Because I know the requests will soon come, here is a picture I took of my new Squier next to his big brothers. I updated the picture today (Nov 11) with one that is lighted better and includes my Charvel.

[carp3nt3r]

I have been watching those also, it seems musicians friend has the 99 bux free ship deal on em. for what its worth thats a beautiful guitar but then i love blondes anyhow !!! It is the one i had been considering, my GAS has passed now with the purchase of a peavey raptor off ebay. no telling what ill have to do to get it set up.

carp3nt3r.

[marnold***]

Just another update. I was gone from Thursday afternoon through all of Friday (meetings . . . hooray), so I didn't have much chance to play. I think I've got the guitar basically set up the way I would want it. The action is a tad higher than I would like, but since I'm going to be going to 10s tuned to Eb on this one, I don't want to make any more adjustments until the string change.

I've spent this evening trying to tune in a good blues tone on my AD30VT. What sounds good with my Fender (with a powerful humbucker), sounds like crap through the Squier. Right now, I've settled into the Black 2x10. Gain, treble, and bass are all set at 12:00. Volume is maxed out and the middle is at 3:00. The master is at 1:00 (which I use for everything). I'm mainly focusing on a cool neck-pickup sound. The funny thing is, that as I switch through the various pickup combinations on my Squier, they all sound different but they all sound cool in their own way. My Fender is cool, but it's basically a one-trick pony. The Squier offers the tonal variety I had hoped for.

The neck pickup isn't as muddy as the one on my Charvel. Regardless of whether the bridge pickup is in humbucker or single coil mode, it matches well with the neck. The coil tap is all that and a bag of chips.

My only real complaint with the guitar (and this isn't much of a complaint) is, of all things, with the volume pot. Robert had a similar complaint elsewhere. When the pot is at about 50%, the volume is basically off. It's difficult, though not impossible, to roll off the volume to clean up the sound and cut the treble a bit. Someday I may look into it. For now, I'm more than content to just play it.

And yes, Musician's Friend still has all three varieties in stock

[marnold***]

Someone on the Squier '51 Modders Forum found this picture of Nick Curran of the Fabulous Thunderbirds playing a blonde '51!

[Iago]

Drool... cool pic!

look at this:
http://home.earthlink.net/~johnbuday/Squier%2051.JPG

pure eye candy!

[abraxas]

Someone on the Squier '51 Modders Forum found this picture of Nick Curran of the Fabulous Thunderbirds playing a blonde '51!

Wow! I really like the way he "reliced" his guitar... I shall probably do the same to my own Blonde 51!!